m    UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

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THE  GEORGE  DANA  BOARDMAN  LECTURESHIP 

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IN  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


VI 


JESUS  ON  LOVE  TO  GOD 
JESUS  ON  LOVE  TO  MAN 

BY 


Rev.  JAMES  MGFFATT,  D.D.,D.Litt. 


EXCHANGE 


The  George  Dana  Boardman  Lectureship 
in  Christian  Ethics 


(Founded  Anno  Domini  1899) 


The  George  Dana  Boardman  Lectureship 
in  Christian  Ethics 


(Founded  Anno  Domini  1899) 


Jesus  on  Love  to  God 
Jesus  on  Love  to  Man 


Two  Lectures 

delivered  before  the 

University  of  Pennsylvania 

March  27  and  28,  1922 


By 
REV.  JAMES  MOFFATT,  D.D.,  D.Litt. 

Educator,  Author,  and  Translator  of  the  New  Testament 

Professor  of  Church  History  in  the  United  Free  Church 

College  of  Glasgow,  Scotland 


•UNIVERSITY  OF- 

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PHILADELPHIA 
THE  PRESS  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

1922 


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Copyright  by 

University  of  Pennsylvania 

1922 


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JESUS  ON  LOVE  TO  MAN 


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THE  FOUNDATION. 

|N  June  6, 1899,  the  Trustees  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania  accepted  from  the 
Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  and  his  wife  a  Deed  of  Gift,  providing  for 
a  foundation  to  be  known  as  "The  Boardman 
Lectureship  in  Christian  Ethics,"  the  income  of 
the  fund  to  be  expended  solely  for  the  purposes  of 
the  Trust.  Dr.  Boardman  served  the  University 
for  twenty-three  years  as  Trustee,  for  a  time  as 
Chaplain,  and  often  as  Ethical  Lecturer.  After 
provision  for  refunding  out  of  the  said  income,  any 
depreciation  which  might  occur  in  the  capital 
sum,  the  remainder  is  to  be  expended  in  procuring 
the  delivery  in  each  year  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  of  one  or  more  lectures  on  Christian 
Ethics  from  the  standpoint  of  the  life,  example 
and  teachings  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in 
the  publication  in  book  form,  of  the  said  lecture 
or  lectures  within  four  months  of  the  completion 
of  their  delivery.  The  volume  in  which  they  are 
printed  shall  always  have  in  its  forefront  a  printed 
statement  of  the  history,  the  outline  and  terms  of 
the  Foundation. 

(7) 


.  •        .   (    < 

.  '.'    :  :■ 


»  c       • 

•  »     <     » 


8  The  Foundation 

On  July  6,  1899,  a  Standing  Committee  on 
"The  Boardman  Lectureship  in  Christian  Ethics" 
was  constituted,  to  which  shall  be  committed  the 
nominations  of  the  lecturers  and  the  publication 
of  the  lectures  in  accordance  with  the  Trust. 

On  February  6,  1900,  on  recommendation  of 
this  committee,  the  Rev.  George  Dana  Board- 
man,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  was  appointed  Lecturer  on 
Christian  Ethics  on  the  Boardman  Foundation 
for  the  current  year. 


.  t\* 


THE  OUTLINE. 
I.    The  Purpose. 


F""1IRST,  the  purpose  is  not  to  trace  the 
history  of  the  various  ethical  theories; 
pj  this  is  already  admirably  done  in  our 
own  noble  University.  Nor  is  it  the  purpose  to 
teach  theology,  whether  natural,  Biblical,  or 
ecclesiastical.  But  the  purpose  of  this  Lecture- 
ship is  to  teach  Christian  Ethics;  that  is  to  say, 
the  practical  application  of  the  precepts  and 
behavior  of  Jesus  Christ  to  everyday  life. 

And  this  is  the  greatest  of  the  sciences.  It  is 
a  great  thing  to  know  astronomy;  for  it  is  the 
science  of  mighty  orbs,  stupendous  distances, 
majestic  adjustments  in  time  and  space.  It  is 
a  great  thing  to  know  biology;  for  it  is  the  science 
of  living  organisms — of  starting,  growth,  health, 
movements,  life  itself.  It  is  a  great  thing  to 
know  law;  for  it  is  the  science  of  legislation, 
government,  equity,  civilization.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  know  philosophy;  for  it  is  the  science 
of  men  and  things.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  know 
theology;  for  it  is  the  science  of  God.  But  what 
avails  it  to  know  everything  in  space  from  atom 

(9) 


I    » 

*  r      • 

ft  • 


10  The  Outline 

to  star,  everything  in  time  from  protoplasm  to 
Deity,  if  we  do  not  know  how  to  manage  ourselves 
amid  the  complex,  delicate,  ever-varying  duties 
of  daily  life?  What  will  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain 
the  whole  world — the  world  geographical,  com- 
mercial, political,  intellectual,  and  after  all  lose 
his  own  soul?  What  can  a  University  give  in 
exchange  for  a  Christlike  character?  Thus  it  is 
that  ethics  is  the  science  of  sciences.  Very  sig- 
nificant is  the  motto  of  our  own  noble  University — 
"  Liter  a  Sine  Mori  bus  Vance." 

And  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  supreme  ethical 
authority.  When  we  come  to  receive  from  him 
our  final  awards,  he  will  not  ask,  "What  was 
your  theory  of  atoms?  What  did  you  think 
about  evolution?  What  was  your  doctrine  of 
atonement?  What  was  your  mode  of  baptism?" 
But  he  will  ask,  "What  did  you  do  with  Me? 
Did  you  accept  Me  as  your  personal  standard  of 
character?  Were  you  a  practical  everyday 
Christian ?"  Christian  Ethics  will  be  the  judg- 
ment test. 

In  sum,  the  purpose  of  this  Lectureship  in 
Christian  Ethics  is  to  build  up  human  character 
after  the  model  of  Jesus  Christ's. 


The  Outline  n 

II.    Range  of  the  Lectureship. 

Secondly,  the  Range  of  the  Lectureship.  This 
range  should  be  as  wide  as  human  society  itself. 
The  following  is  offered  in  way  of  general  outline 
and  suggestive  hints,  each  hint  being  of  course 
but  a  specific  or  technical  illustration  growing  out 
of  some  vaster  underlying  Principle. 

i.  Man's  Heart-Nature. — And,  first,  man's 
religious  nature.  For  example:  Christian  (not 
merely  ethical)  precepts  concerning  man's  capac- 
ity for  religion;  worship;  communion;  divine- 
ness;  immortality;  duty  of  religious  observances; 
the  Beatitudes;  in  brief,  Manliness  in  Christ. 

2.  Man's  Mind-Nature. — Secondly,  man's 
intellect-nature.  For  example:  Christian  pre- 
cepts concerning  reason;  imagination;  invention; 
aesthetics;  language,  whether  spoken,  written, 
sung,  builded,  painted,  chiseled,  acted,  etc. 

3.  Man's  Society-Nature. — Thirdly,  man's 
society-nature.     For  example: 

{a)  Christian  precepts  concerning  the  personal 
life;  for  instance:  conscientiousness,  honesty, 
truthfulness,  charity,  chastity,  courage,  inde- 
pendence, chivalry,  patience,  altruism,  etc. 

(b)  Christian  precepts  concerning  the  family 
life;   for  instance:    marriage;   divorce;   duties  of 


12  The  Outline 

husbands,  wives,  parents,  children,  kindred, 
servants;  place  of  woman,  etc. 

(c)  Christian  precepts  concerning  the  business 
life;  for  instance:  rights  of  labor;  rights  of 
capital;  right  of  pecuniary  independence;  living 
within  means;  life  insurance;  keeping  morally 
accurate  accounts;  endorsing;  borrowing; 
prompt  liquidation;  sacredness  of  trust-funds, 
personal  and  corporate;  individual  moral  respon- 
sibility of  directors  and  officers;  trust-combina- 
tions; strikes;  boycotting;  limits  of  speculation; 
profiting  by  ambiguities;  single  tax;  nationaliza- 
tion of  property,  etc. 

(a7)  Christian  precepts  concerning  the  civic  life; 
for  instance:  responsibilities  of  citizenship;  elec- 
tive franchise;  obligations  of  office;  class- 
legislation;  legal  oaths;  custom-house  con- 
science; sumptuary  laws;  public  institutions, 
whether  educational,  ameliorative,  or  reforma- 
tory; function  of  money;  standard  of  money; 
public  credit;  civic  reforms;  caucuses,  etc. 

(e)  Christian  precepts  concerning  the  inter- 
national life;  for  instance:  treaties;  diplomacy; 
war;  arbitration;  disarmament;  tariff;  reciproc- 
ity; mankind,  etc. 

(/)  Christian   precepts   concerning   the   eccle- 


The  Outline  13 

siastical  life;  for  instance:  sectarianism;  comity 
in  mission  fields;  co-operation;  unification  of 
Christendom,  etc. 

(g)  Christian  precepts  concerning  the  academic 
life;  for  instance:  literary  and  scientific  ideals; 
professional  standards  of  morality;  function  of 
the  press;  copyrights;  obligations  of  scholar- 
ship, etc. 

In  sum,  Christian  precepts  concerning  the 
tremendous  problems  of  sociology,  present  and 
future. 

Not  that  all  the  lecturers  must  agree  at  every 
point;  often  there  are  genuine  cases  of  conscience, 
or  reasonable  doubt,  in  which  a  good  deal  can  be 
justly  said  on  both  sides.  The  supreme  point 
is  this:  Whatever  the  topic  may  be,  the  lecturer 
must  discuss  it  conscientiously,  in  light  of  Christ's 
own  teachings  and  character;  and  so  awaken  the 
consciences  of  his  listeners,  making  their  moral 
sense  more  acute. 

4.  Mans  Body-Nature. — Fourthly,  man's  body- 
nature.  For  example:  Christian  precepts  con- 
cerning environment;  heredity;  health;  cleanli- 
ness; temperance;  self-control;  athletics;  public 
hygiene;  tenement-houses;  prophylactics;  the 
five  senses;  treatment  of  animals,  etc. 


1 4  The  Outline 

In  sum,  the  range  of  topics  for  this  Lecture- 
ship in  Christian  Ethics  should  include  whatever 
tends  to  society-building,  or  perfectation  of  per- 
sonal character  in  Christ.  Surely  here  is  material 
enough,  and  this  without  any  need  of  duplication, 
for  centuries  to  come. 

III.     Spirit  of  the  Lectureship. 

Thirdly,  the  Spirit  of  this  Lectureship.  Every 
lecture  must  be  presented  from  the  standpoint 
of  Jesus  Christ.  It  must  be  distinctly  under- 
stood, and  the  founder  of  the  Lectureship  can- 
not emphasize  the  point  too  strongly,  that  every 
lecture  in  these  successive  courses  must  be  unam- 
biguously Christian;  that  is,  from  the  viewpoint 
of  the  divine  Son  of  Mary.  This  Lectureship 
must  be  something  more  than  a  lectureship  in 
moral  philosophy,  or  in  church  theology;  it 
must  be  a  lectureship  in  Christian  morality,  or 
practical  ethics  from  the  standpoint  of  Christ's 
own  personal  character,  example,  and  teachings. 

IV.    Qualification  of  the  Lecturer. 

Fourthly,  the  Qualification  for  the  lecturer. 
The  founder  hopes  that  the  lecturer  may  often  be, 
perhaps  generally,   a   layman;    for  instance:    a 


The  Outline  15 

merchant,  a  banker,  a  lawyer,  a  statesman,  a 
physician,  a  scientist,  a  professor,  an  artist,  a 
craftsman;  for  Christian  ethics  is  a  matter  of 
daily  practical  life  rather  than  of  metaphysical 
theology.  The  founder  cares  not  what  the  eccle- 
siastical connection  of  the  lecturer  may  be; 
whether  a  Baptist  or  an  Episcopalian,  a  Quaker 
or  a  Latinist;  for  Christian  ethics  as  Christ's 
behavior  is  not  a  matter  of  ecclesiastical  ordina- 
tion or  of  sect.  The  only  pivotal  condition  of 
the  Lectureship  in  this  particular  is  this:  The 
lecturer  himself  must  be  unconditionally  loyal 
to  our  only  King,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  for 
Jesus  Christ  himself  is  the  world's  true,  ever- 
lasting Ethics. 


Addresses  by  Rev.  James  Moffatt,    D.D.,  D.Litt.,  at 

the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  Pa., 

March  27th  and  28th,  1922,  at  8.15  P.M. 

I.    Jesus  on  Love  to  God. 

!^HE  first  person  to  raise  the  question, 
whether  it  was  possible  to  love  God, 
was  not  a  saint  but  a  philosopher. 
There  have  been  philosopher-saints;  no  one  can 
deny  that  who  remembers  a  thinker  like  Spinoza. 
But  the  saintly  type  and  the  philosophical  type 
are  generally  apart,  and  the  one  analyses  where 
the  other  is  content  with  intuitions.  It  is  not 
the  saint,  it  is  the  philosopher,  who  attempts  to 
argue  about  the  possibility  and  justification  of 
loving  God,  and  we  are  not  surprised  to  discover 
that  the  earliest  thinker  who  faced  this  as  a 
problem  was  Aristotle,  or  at  any  rate  one  of 
Aristotle's  school,  the  philosopher  to  whom  we 
owe  the  Magna  Moralia,  an  ethical  treatise  of 
the  fourth  century  b.  c.  We  open  that  treatise, 
only  to  find  that  the  writer  is  sceptical,  if  not 
negative.  If  love  or  friendship  rests  upon  mutual 
pleasure,  he  argues,  then  the  relationship  between 
God  and  man  is  too  unequal  to  permit  of  man 

(17) 


1 8  Jesus  on  Love  to  God 

loving  the  deity.  No  doubt,  he  observes,  some 
people  do  think  that  friendship  with  God  is 
possible.  "But  they  are  wrong.  Our  view  is 
that  friendship  cannot  exist  except  where  there 
is  some  return  of  affection.  Now  friendship 
towards  God  does  not  allow  of  love  being  returned; 
indeed  it  does  not  permit  loving  at  all.  For  it 
would  be  absurd  to  say  that  a  person  loved  Zeus." 
However,  not  all  of  Aristotle's  school  took  so 
uncompromisiEg  an  attitude.  For  example,  the 
Aristotelian  who  afterwards  compiled  the  Eude- 
mian  Ethics  evidently  regarded  religious  love  as 
to  some  extent  possible.  His  tone  is  more  religious 
here  and  there  than  that  of  his  master  or  of  his 
predecessors.  For  him,  the  love  of  man  towards 
God  may  be  ranked  as  friendship  between  an 
inferior  and  a  superior,  as  between  son  and  father. 
In  such  cases,  "  there  is  not  at  all,  or  at  least  not 
in  equal  degree,  the  return  of  love  for  love.  For 
it  would  be  ridiculous  to  accuse  God  because  the 
love  one  receives  in  return  from  him  is  not  equal 
to  the  love  accorded  him."  This  exactly  reverses 
the  ordinary  view  of  the  religious  man,  who 
humbly  assumes  that  his  love  to  God  is  never 
equal  to  God's  love  for  him.  But  the  Aristotelian, 
resting  love  upon  virtue,  and  interpreting  it  as 


Jesus  on  Love  to  God  19 

the  relation  between  a  subordinate  and  a  superior, 
looks  upon  God  primarily  as  a  benefactor  and 
lord;  from  this  he  deduces  the  inference  that  it 
would  be  preposterous  to  expect  a  condescension 
in  the  divine  nature  which  would  even  equal  the 
deferential  affection  shown  by  man  upon  the 
lower  plane  of  humanity.  The  nearest  analogy 
to  this  point  of  view  is  furnished  by  the  famous 
aphorism  of  Spinoza,  which  delighted  Goethe 
with  its  emphasis  upon  disinterested  love:  "He 
who  loves  God  cannot  expect  God  to  love  him  in 
return."  But  Spinoza  was  driven  to  this  by  his 
conception  of  love,  which  in  his  view  implied 
affections  of  joy  and  sorrow;  and  Deity  must  be 
exempt  from  such  passions. 

Jesus  breathed  a  very  different  atmosphere. 
He  inherited  the  simple  intuitions  of  Jewish 
religion,  where  the  soul  loved  God  instinctively, 
without  asking  why.  In  Israel  the  human  heart 
loved  the  God  who  had  been  revealed  in  history 
and  experience  as  a  God  whose  favour  and  fellow- 
ship were  best  expressed  by  some  term  like 
"love."  God,  in  the  Old  Testament,  especially 
in  the  later  phases,  is  loving,  fatherly,  and  kind; 
he  is  loved  as  he  is  loveable.  It  is  true  that  before 
a  book  like  Deuteronomy  there  are  extremely 


20  Jesus  on  Love  to  God 

few  cases  of  love  being  used  to  denote  the  rela- 
tion of  Israelites  to  God.  There  are  only  two 
which  are  beyond  question,  and  both  imply 
national  loyalty.  Thus  God  is  described  in 
Exodus  xx.  6  as  one  who  shows  mercy  to  thousands 
of  those  that  love  me  and  keep  my  commandments^ 
and  at  the  end  of  the  war-cry  in  Judges  v.  31 
Deborah  cries:  let  those  who  love  Yahweh  be  as 
the  sun  rising  in  its  strength.  To  love  God  is 
the  ethical  loyalty  of  His  people  to  His  cause — 
an  important  feature  to  keep  in  mind,  as  we  pass 
forward  into  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  And  it  is 
significant  that  in  the  finest  Jewish  teaching  the 
words  of  the  war-song  are  interpreted  passively. 
The  Mishna  tells  us:  "those  who  are  humiliated 
without  humiliating  others,  those  who  listen  to 
abuse  of  themselves  without  retaliating,  those 
who  act  from  love  and  rejoice  in  suffering,  to 
them  the  word  applies:  those  who  love  God  are 
like  the  sun  going  forth  in  his  strength"  Again, 
as  we  shall  see,  this  tallies  with  a  new  emphasis 
laid  by  Jesus  upon  the  mutual  expression  of  love. 
Meantime,  however,  we  notice  that  when  Chris- 
tianity began,  it  breathed  this  atmosphere  of 
instinctive  truth  and  affection  towards  God,  in 
which  as  yet  the  cool  analysis  of  philosophy  had 
no  place. 


Jesus  on  Love  to  God  21 

In  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  as  recorded  by  the 
first  three  gospels — our  primary  source — there  is 
more  of  the  spirit  than  of  the  letter  of  this  love 
to  God.  Jesus  never  speaks  directly  of  God's 
love  for  men,  and  although  he  does  bid  men  love 
God,  "love"  is  not  the  only,  not  even  the  supreme 
word  in  his  religious  vocabulary.  The  reasons 
for  this  we  shall  examine  in  a  moment.  Mean- 
time, let  us  survey  the  materials.  There  are 
four  distinct  allusions  to  man's  love  for  God  or 
for  Jesus  himself,  and  then  there  is  his  re-issue 
of  the  Old  Testament  injunction  to  love  God. 

Within  the  higher  reaches  of  rabbinic  piety, 
as  already  in  the  later  Judaism  reflected  by  a 
psalm  like  the  hundred-and-nineteenth,  love  for 
God  became  increasingly  love  for  the  Torah.  Oh, 
how  love  I  thy  Law1  Such  love  is  the  supreme 
religious  and  moral  duty,  for  in  the  Torah  God 
is  manifested  as  loveable  and  near  and  wise.  In 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  a  similar  spirit  may  be  felt. 
Man's  chief  end  is  indeed  love  to  God,  but  this, 
his  highest  good,  is  love  for  God's  truth  and 
purpose,  a  devotion  to  Him  which  is  not  actuated 
by  a  sense  of  what  we  can  get  from  Him  but  by 
a  consciousness  of  Him  as  the  reality  of  life  and 
by  a  loyalty  to  His  interests.      The  controlling 


22  Jesus  on  Love  to  God 

thought  is  personal  reverence  and  absorption  in 
His  cause  for  His  sake. 

Twice,  and  only  twice,  does  Jesus  ever  mention 
love  to  God.  First,  in  a  denunciation  of  the 
Pharisees  (Luke  xi.  42).  Woe  to  you  Pharisees! 
You  tithe  mint  and  rue  and  every  vegetable,  but 
justice  and  the  love  of  God  you  disregard.  The 
collocation  of  justice  and  love  to  God  here  reminds 
us  of  the  noble  saying  of  the  prophet  Micah,  who 
asked,  what  doth  the  Lord  require  0/  thee  but  to  do 
what  is  just,  to  love  mercy ,  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God?  What  Jesus  is  criticising  is  not  so 
much  the  punctilious  attention  to  ritual  details 
as  an  unscrupulous  neglect  of  the  real  essentials 
of  religion.  The  Pharisees  were  extending  and 
ramifying  the  law  of  tithes  till  it  covered  every 
vegetable  and  plant  in  the  garden,  and  in  so 
doing  were  losing  sight  of  the  central  demand  of 
God  upon  the  ethical  and  religious  conscience. 
The  outward  practices  of  religion  were  unduly 
encroaching  on  the  inward.  The  point  made  by 
Jesus  is  that  people  cannot  hope  to  win  God's 
favour  by  such  efforts.  Goodness  of  the  real 
kind  excludes  any  such  pretentious  and  scrupu- 
lous claims  upon  the  score  of  ritual  precision. 
Jesus  in  fact  had  repeatedly  to  meet  and  check 


Jesus  on  Love  to  God  23 

two  forms  of  misguided  anxiety,  one  (as  here) 
about  the  ritual  details  of  religion,  the  other 
about  worldly  fortune  and  faring.  Both  conflict 
with  genuine  love  to  God,  even  the  former  for 
all  its  religious  colouring.  A  true ,  devotion  of 
the  heart  to  God  is  not  incompatible  with  strict- 
ness in  religious  observances.  Nevertheless  the 
latter  is  apt  to  overshadow  the  former  and, 
unless  one  is  very  careful,  to  throw  it  out  of 
focus  by  an  overdue  emphasis  upon  external 
affairs. 

The  second  passage  about  love  to  God  occurs  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount: 

No  man  can  serve  two  masters: 

either  he  will  hate  one  and  love  the  other \ 

or  else  he  will  stand  by  the  one  and  despise  the  other — 

you  cannot  serve  both  God  and  Mammon. 

Love  to  God  is  evidently  service  of  God;  this  is 
implied,  as  indeed  it  is  implied  or  urged  every- 
where  by  Jesus.  For  in  studying  his  teaching 
about  the  duties  of  men  to  their  heavenly  Father 
we  need  to  recollect  that  in  Oriental  life  the  rela- 
tion of  son  to  father  included  an  element  of  service; 
the  son  was  naturally  engaged  in  the  business 
and  employment  of  his  father.     So  God's  sons 


24  Jesus  on  Love  to  God 

are  to  show  their  love  by  a  dutiful  life.  Such  a 
devotion,  Jesus  further  implies,  is  a  matter  of 
choice,  and  it  must  be  single-minded,  if  it  is  to 
be  real. 

Twice  again  Jesus  mentions  love  for  himself  as 
God's  representative.  In  his  heroic  demand  upon 
his  followers,  he  declares: 

He  who  loves  father  or  mother  more  than  me 

is  not  worthy  of  me; 
he  who  loves  son  or  daughter  more  than  me 

is  not  worthy  of  me: 
he  who  will  not  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  after  me 

is  not  worthy  of  me. 

The  claim  here  again  is  for  a  devotion  to  himself 
for  the  sake  of  his  cause.  He  claims  a  personal 
devotion  which  is  serious  and  manly,  alive  to  the 
interests  which  lav  nearest  to  His  own  heart. 
It  is  love  conceived  as  loyalty.  The  other  allu- 
sion is  in  the  story  of  the  woman  who  was  a 
sinner  in  the  city,  and  who,  touched  by  his  words 
on  repentance,  made  her  way  into  the  Pharisee's 
house  to  lavish  homage  upon  him.  She  showed 
her  love  because  she  felt  forgiven.  And  Jesus 
publicly  ratifies  her  pardon.  Many  as  her  sins 
are,  they  are  forgiven,  for  her  love  is  great.     Her 


Jesus  on  Love  to  God  25 

humble  and  adoring  expression  of  love  proved  to 
Jesus  that  she  had  honestly  repented,  and  vir- 
tually he  tells  the  Pharisee  that  love  of  this  kind 
is  supremely  valuable.  This  is  the  one  allusion 
to  love  in  connexion  with  penitence  and  forgive- 
ness, and  on  this  account  it  is  specially  important. 
Jesus  in  the  name  and  power  of  God  had  by  his 
words  moved  this  poor  creature  to  break  with  her 
sin;  his  graciousness  had  wakened  her  affection 
and  trust,  and  in  this  Jesus  sees  her  right  to  be 
pardoned.  "Her  sins  were  many,  just  because 
she  loved  much — too  much,"  as  Father  Tyrrell 
observes.  "It  is  usually  the  same  gift  which 
damns  or  saves  us,  according  as  it  is  ill  or  well 
used."  Her  passionate  affection  is  purified  and 
redeemed  by  Jesus.  And  yet  we  notice  that  at 
the  end  he  speaks  of  her  faith,  not  of  her  love: 
your  faith  has  saved  you,  go  in  peace. 

For  it  is  faith,  rather  than  love,  which  expresses 
for  Jesus  the  normal  attitude  of  man  to  God. 
But  before  noting  the  significance  of  this,  we  must 
recall  how  Jesus  defined  the  essence  of  religion 
upon  the  lines  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  chief 
command,  he  said,  was:  " Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord 
our  God  is  our  Lord,  and  you  must  love  the  Lord 
your  God  with  your  whole  heart,  with  your  whole 


26  Jesus  on  Love  to  God 

sou/,  with  your  whole  mind,  and  with  your  whole 
strength.  The  second  is  this:  You  must  love  your 
neighbour  as  yourself."  Jesus  here  is  simplifying 
religion,  disentangling  its  essence  from  a  mass  of 
secondary  details  and  duties;  he  gives  a  unity  to 
the  religious  life.  And,  as  he  implies  by  uniting 
the  two  commands,  love  to  God  is  to  be  shown  in 
the  concrete  realities  of  life;  it  is  not  a  detached 
affection  which  sits  loose  to  the  relationships  and 
responsibilities  of  existence,  but  an  emotion  which 
finds  expression  in  the  human  sphere  in  which 
God  has  placed  us. 

Such  are  the  explicit  references  to  love  for  God 
in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  Why,  we  ask,  are  they 
so  rare?  Because  he  could  assume  this  as  an 
element  in  the  religious  experience  of  his  con- 
temporaries? Perhaps.  But  the  real  explana- 
tion lies  deeper.  Jesus  preferred  "faith"  to 
"love"  as  the  expression  of  man's  relation  to 
God.  "Love"  does  not  necessarily  emphasize 
the  moral  reverence  and  humility  which  for  Jesus 
is  essential  in  the  tie  between  men  and  God. 
Love  to  God,  as  he  teaches,  is  shown  by  faith, 
which  often  means  moral  courage,  and  always 
implies  dutiful  service.  Note  that  Jesus  speaks  of 
faith  in  God  and  love  towards  man.      In   the 


Jesus  on  Love  to  Man  27 

simple,  direct  language  of  the  Old  Testament,  in 
which  he  had  been  trained,  he  can  speak  of  love 
to  God  and  to  one's  neighbour.  But  his  charac- 
teristic language  is  that  of  confidence  or  faith  in 
the  Father's  love  and  care.  And  one  reason  for 
this  preference  is  that  God  reveals  His  personal 
demands  and  nature  in  human  relationships,  so 
that  our  love  to  Him  is  most  adequately  exercised 
and  expressed  by  a  fulfilment  of  our  love  to  our 
fellows. 

II.    Jesus  on  Love  to  Man. 

This  opens  up  naturally  into  the  question  of 
man's  love  for  man,  about  which  Jesus  has  most 
to  say. 

The  second  command,  he  insists,  is:  love  your 
neighbour  as  yourself.  Jesus  presupposes  a  naive 
and  natural  self-love.  The  value  and  joy  of 
personal  life  is  first  learned  by  us  from  ourselves. 
Sympathy,  help,  service — these  imply  that  we 
know  what  it  is  to  have  joy  and  to  suffer  pain. 
Love  of  self,  in  the  sense  of  a  supreme  estimate  of 
human  personality,  has  a  moral  value.  Those 
who  appreciate  the  responsibility  as  well  as  the 
joy  of  possessing  personality  as  a  trust  from  God 
are   initiated  by   their  experience  into  a  moral 


28  Jesus  on  Love  to  Man 

attitude  toward  their  fellows.  Whatever  you 
would  like  men  to  do  to  you,  do  just  the  same  to  them, 
Jesus  teaches;  that  is  the  meaning  of  the  Law  and 
the  prophets.  It  is  not  quite  accurate  to  say  that 
this  positive  form  of  the  Golden  Rule  was  entirely 
unknown  to  the  Judaism  of  the  day;  but  Jesus 
made  it  prominent  as  no  one  yet  had  done. 
Indeed,  even  within  the  later  church  there  was 
a  tendency  to  relapse  upon  the  negative  form, 
which  he  transcended.  However,  the  immediate 
point  for  us  is  that  this  maxim  reiterates  the  de- 
mand for  an  appreciation  of  one's  self  as  a  moral 
and  spiritual  personality. 

The  importance  of  this  lies  in  the  fact  that  such 
love  of  one's  self  involves  self-respect  and  a  care- 
ful safeguarding  of  personality.  To  love  one's 
self  means  a  refusal  to  waste  or  neglect  one's 
powers  of  mind  and  body.  But  it  carries  with  it 
more  than  this  ethical  self-preservation;  it  sug- 
gests the  moral  limitations  of  love.  Brotherly 
love,  as  Jesus  taught,  issues  in  a  readiness  to 
sacrifice  one's  self  for  others.  Yet  there  are 
sacrifices  which  one  has  no  right  to  expect  from 
others,  and  which  one  has  no  right  to  make.  Love 
means  a  supreme  sense  of  ethical  values.  It 
cannot  sacrifice  itself  at  the  expense  of  its  own 


Jesus  on  Love  to  Man  29 

worth.  For  example,  the  problem  raised  by- 
Shakespeare  in  Measure  for  Measure  has  often 
to  be  met  in  less  tragic  forms.  Or,  the  danger 
which  Balzac  painted  in  Pere  Goriot — the  danger 
of  allowing  love  to  make  foolish  sacrifices  which 
really  tend  to  spoil  the  object  of  one's  love.  We 
dare  not,  as  we  value  ourselves,  put  happiness 
before  moral  ends,  nor  have  we  any  business  to 
make  sacrifices  of  honour  and  honesty  which 
impair  the  higher  claims  of  goodness. 

With  regard  to  the  sphere  of  this  brotherly 
love,  Jesus  has  two  words  to  say.  It  embraces 
our  neighbour,  that  is,  our  fellow-man.  In  the 
parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  Jesus  teaches  that 
this  brotherly  love  is  not  to  be  confined  to  the 
circle  of  those  who  are  kin  and  kind  to  ourselves, 
nor  even  to  the  circle  of  those  who  share  our 
nationality  or  our  faith.  Need,  even  in  a  heretic 
or  a  foreigner,  claims  helpful  love  from  a  Christian, 
the  love  that  does  what  it  can. 

Then  your  "  neighbour "  may  be,  or  he  may 
become,  your  "  enemy."  You  have  heard  the  say- 
ing, "  You  must  love  your  neighbour  and  hate  your 
enemy"  But  I  tell  you,  love  your  enemies  and 
pray  for  those  who  persecute  you,  that  you  may  be 
sons  of  your  Father  in  heaven.     The  "enemy"  is 


30  Jesus  on  Love  to  Man 

anyone  who  injures  or  maligns  us,  any  one  in  our 
group  who  slanders  or  insults  us.  Jesus  has  in 
mind  the  private  animosities  which  embittered  life 
as  he  knew  it  among  the  peasantry  and  common 
folk.  It  is  not  the  clash  of  armies  but  the  strife 
of  tongues,  the  slander  and  petty  attacks  which 
make  life  sore  and  hard,  social  feuds  and  enmities. 
Injuries  of  this  kind  raise  either  resentment  or 
retaliation,  sometimes  both.  Jesus  demands  a 
different  attitude.  He  looks  for  a  spirit  of  steady 
patience,  which  will  make  allowances.  Affronts 
and  insults  and  injuries  are  apt  to  create  in  us 
a  disposition  at  least  to  hold  aloof  from  those  who 
misbehave  towards  us.  Our  wounded  feelings 
are  prone  to  prompt  retaliation,  if  opportunity 
offers.  Jesus  says,  pray  for  such  unmannerly 
people.  Why?  Partly  because  prayer  means 
that  we  do  not  make  ourselves  the  judges  as  well 
as  the  victims;  prayer  helps  to  deliver  us  from 
that  atmosphere  of  wounded  self-love  in  which 
the  sense  of  our  personal  importance  tends  to 
exaggerate  offences.  But  his  method  of  prayer 
for  such  persons  is  intended  to  produce  yet  another 
result.  Why  are  we  bidden  to  pray  for  them? 
That  they  may  stop  hurting  us?  Not  primarily. 
It  is  that  they  may  come  to  realize  the  harm  they 


Jesus  on  Love  to  Man  ji 

are  doing  to  themselves  as  well  as  to  us,  that  they 
may  regain  their  true  position  towards  God. 
For  Christian  love  means,  as  it  has  been  said, 
devotion  to  the  ends  of  God  in  human  personality; 
it  is  a  steady  sense  of  the  capacities  and  possibili- 
ties in  human  life.  When  we  love  our  enemies, 
we  do  not  love  them  as  deliberate  invaders  of  our 
rights,  or  in  the  rdle  of  those  who  injure  our 
personalities.  Indeed  we  are  bound,  in  self- 
defence,  to  resent  such  attacks  and  resist  such 
invasions  of  our  purity  and  honour.  No,  we 
"love"  them  in  the  sense  that  we  still  believe  in 
them,  even  though  they  may,  for  the  time  being, 
have  lost  their  self-respect.  We  decline  to  regard 
them  as  objects  of  criticism  or  loathing.  Still 
they  are  God's  creatures,  and  no  amount  of  ill- 
treatment  must  provoke  us  into  treating  them 
as  hopeless  or  viewing  them  with  enmity  and 
aversion. 

Such  is  the  dauntless  "love"  which  Jesus 
claims — not  an  emotion,  not  a  blind,  amiable 
refusal  to  face  the  facts,  but  an  attitude  to  our 
fellows  which  enables  us  to  honour  them,  in  spite 
of  everything,  to  believe  in  them  even  when  they 
do  not  believe  in  themselves,  to  help  them  to 
fulfill  the  divine  ends  of  life.     Our  relationship 


32  'Jesus  on  Love  to  Man 

with  them  must  be  dominated  by  this  temper,  if 
it  is  to  be  really  Christian.  Such  love  is  not  indis- 
criminate affability;  it  is  keenly  alive  to  the  high 
moral  ends  of  life,  and  will  upon  occasion  use 
discipline  and  severity  to  waken  others  to  them, 
since  this  may  be  the  truest  kindness.  In  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  brotherly  love,  which  must  not 
flinch  nor  falter,  implies  the  recognition  of  God's 
will  in  our  relationships  and  responsibilities;  it 
means  that  we  believe  every  personality  in  our 
circle  has  some  place  and  value  for  God,  and 
that  we  are  intended  to  further  such  ends  of  God 
in  man,  no  matter  how  they  treat  us.  To  love 
others  is  to  forward  their  highest  interests;  it  is 
to  be  alive,  and  to  make  them  alive,  to  the  full 
possibilities  of  their  life  under  the  will  of  God 
our  common  Father. 

The  working  out  of  this  supreme  duty  involves 
much  thought  and  care;  it  is  a  mental  as  well  as 
a  moral  discipline  for  us.  It  is  passive  and  active; 
it  takes  the  initiative  in  forgiveness,  in  charity,  in 
training,  in  all  forms  of  social  service.  At  the 
root  of  it  lies  a  steady  reverence  for  human 
personality,  which  abjures  cynicism  and  selfish- 
ness at  every  turn.  The  application  of  the  prin- 
ciple is  far-reaching  in  every  sphere  of  human 


Jesus  on  Love  to  Man  33 

relationship.  This  is  no  place  to  analyse  or  even 
to  indicate  them.  What  is  relevant  is  to  empha- 
sise the  central  and  uncompromising  demand  of 
a  Jesus  upon  his  followers  for  brotherly  love  in 
the  practical  thoughtful  sense  which  we  have 
sought  to  define  or  describe.  It  is  the  reflex  and 
accompaniment  of  our  love  to  God,  a  religious 
attitude.  For  the  God  whom  we  love  and  serve  is 
revealed  mainly  in  human  nature,  as  Jesus 
teaches;  his  will  meets  us  as  we  live  together 
and  there  the  second  commandment,  which  is  like 
the  first,  encounters  us  from  day  to  day. 


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